I was having dinner last night at one of my regular pubs and a group of regulars came in, one brought her daughter who had an iPhone. Through their conversation she was talking about her phone and how there were a bunch of knockoffs, and that the Pre tried and failed at it. That got my attention so I had to go over and open up the discussion, in a polite and respectful way.

I brought out my phone and started doing a feature by feature comparison with the iPhone. Sure there were some places that the Pre is still lacking and the iPhone is better, but it still isn't even a year old. Features like the app store, onscreen keyboard, voicemail management, etc...just aren't there. There were also several areas where the Pre shined. They loved the application switching, most liked the physical keyboard, the camera speed and quality, and in a page by page comparison, the Sprint network was faster than AT&T where we were.

By the end of the night the iPhone owner admitted that she never used or even saw a Pre, and most of her negative attitude was from what she read or heard from her iPhone websites or friends.

When all was said and done, I accomplished what I wanted. Had a good debate with an iPhone user, (making said iPhone user eat her words was a bonus), shown off the Pre to people that otherwise never would have known it existed, and got an open invitation to go tailgating any weekend the rest of the season.

It's amazing how many people make judgments on things that they have never even experienced before. My girlfriend has an iPhone and I have the Pre and I think that most people let brand loyalty get in the way of a pure comparison. I have spent time comparing features and the iPhone does win in some categories but I think that its wow factor has been lost due to its popularity whereas the Pre is fairly new and I still get "What is that thing?" Anyways good job with the debate, all some people need is just a little education, but you gotta watch out for the crazed apple lovers they might not be so welcoming.

I was having dinner last night at one of my regular pubs and a group of regulars came in, one brought her daughter who had an iPhone. Through their conversation she was talking about her phone and how there were a bunch of knockoffs, and that the Pre tried and failed at it. That got my attention so I had to go over and open up the discussion, in a polite and respectful way.

I brought out my phone and started doing a feature by feature comparison with the iPhone. Sure there were some places that the Pre is still lacking and the iPhone is better, but it still isn't even a year old. Features like the app store, onscreen keyboard, voicemail management, etc...just aren't there. There were also several areas where the Pre shined. They loved the application switching, most liked the physical keyboard, the camera speed and quality, and in a page by page comparison, the Sprint network was faster than AT&T where we were.

By the end of the night the iPhone owner admitted that she never used or even saw a Pre, and most of her negative attitude was from what she read or heard from her iPhone websites or friends.

When all was said and done, I accomplished what I wanted. Had a good debate with an iPhone user, (making said iPhone user eat her words was a bonus), shown off the Pre to people that otherwise never would have known it existed, and got an open invitation to go tailgating any weekend the rest of the season.

Cool story....
My favorite iPhone / Pre story is the guy who boasted about his iPhone but couldn't get it to work as his 3G and signal sucked. So his fellow Pre co-worker turned on MyTether and the WiFi router mode so he could log onto the Sprint network through the Pre and continue...
That was classic...